St. Pete leaders pass wage theft ordinance

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

BY STEVEN GIRARDI
Tribune staff
Published: April 2, 2015

 

ST. PETERSBURG – An ordinance to help protect workers from being paid unfairly or, in some cases, not paid at all, passed its first review by the City Council on Thursday. The council voted unanimously to establish a city office to help workers file and pursue wage theft complaints against employers. The ordinance will require a second approval later this month.

City Councilwoman Darden Rice, who proposed the ordinance, said the city needs to protect workers, as well as employers who are harmed by competitors who pay illegally low wages.

The wage theft problem gained attention when Pinellas landed forth on list of counties with the highest incidents of wage theft in the state, behind Miami-Dade, Hillsborough and Broward, in a study by Florida International University in Miami.

(Read More)

3d_money_construction_dreamstime_xxl_21903206

Report: Wage theft on the rise in Bay area

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Sarah Hagen, WTSP6:43 p.m. EDT

March 20, 2015

 

 

St. Petersburg, Florida — Could you be a victim of wage theft? It’s when an employer doesn’t pay in full, fails to pay minimum wage, ignores overtime pay, makes you work through meal breaks or pays late.

“Pushing for a wage theft ordinance in St. Pete will make bad businesses think twice before cheating employees,” said councilwoman Darden Rice. She adds, it’s the many personal stories like Scott Snurpus’ that have motivated her for change

“Once I realized I was being robbed I was mad,” says Snurpus who was working as an electrician. He says his temp agency was wrongly taking money from his paycheck to pay for equipment. Since then the US Labor Board got involved and he’s gotten his money back.

Rice says certain industries are more likely to target victims “Low-wage industries: fast food workers, nursing homes, construction workers,” she says.

(Read More)

Feds, Florida reach deal on construction industry rip-off

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

BY NICHOLAS NEHAMAS
01/13/2015 7:39 PM

 

Taxpayers were cheated.

Workers were swindled out of a fair shake.

Law-abiding businesses were forced to cut corners or go belly up.

A year-long investigation by Miami Herald and McClatchy Newspapers published in September found all this and more in Florida’s construction industry during the recession.

Publicly available documents and interviews with workers around Florida showed that contractors broke state law and cheated on their taxes in order to get work on the federally financed projects that were the lifeblood of the building industry between 2009 and 2013.

Now the U.S. Department of Labor has announced an agreement with the state Department of Revenue to crack down on the accounting trick that bad actors use to evade taxes and cheat their employees.

The problem, known as “worker misclassification,” happens when companies treat their workers as independent contractors instead of permanent employees. The companies don’t withhold income tax or file payroll taxes on those workers. They don’t pay unemployment taxes.